" Dad, He was a great one for entrances and exits. Always a performer, he was a man of many parts. For me his best role was that of being my Dad. I shall always be grateful for what he gave me. Above all, he showed me how much it is possible to love life, when you throw yourself into things with the kind of enthusiasm he had - for people, for beliefs, for life itself. He was a very public-spirited man. He took on innumerable causes which others might have scorned as being not immediately fruitful. That was never the point - the point was the taking part, with love. When he retired after teaching for 30 years at the same school, it was the Esperanto movement to which he devoted most of his time, until he was well over 80. As anyone who has been buttonholed by him on that particular topic - and most of us have been! - will know. When he was 80 he took a group of players to Spain to perform his beloved Ayckbourn to an Esperanto Congress. I shall always treasure the tape of him singing the Major General's song from "The Pirates of Penzance" in Esperanto. He was, despite all this activity outside the home, also a family man. His long marriage to my Swedish mother was profoundly happy. He always relied greatly on her support, but when my Mum had a series of strokes he turned his hand to the domestic tasks which had been her domain, and looked after her with a gently devotion.

We took him on holiday to the Jura after my Mum died. One day we went on a walk on a mountain path. On the way down he started running. Running! I called out to him to slow down, just as he went flying head over heels, rolling over and over down the steep slope. He came to rest against a large rock, fortunately unscathed. Predictably, his response was a rueful laugh."